This Nintendo Switch voice chat garbage is so typically Nintendo

What are they doing?

If you’re playing catch-up, here’s the deal. Nintendo just released Splatoon 2 on Thursday. It’s a great game. They also dropped the Nintendo Switch Online application. That app does a few things, but its chief function, one might argue, is serving as a way to form parties with friends and, yes, voice chat in Splatoon 2.

In fact, the app is required for voice chat, because the Nintendo Switch doesn’t have a built-in grouping or voice chat application.

We learned this week that the Nintendo Switch Online app must remain open and your phone’s screen must stay on in order for voice chat to work continuously. If you swap apps to respond to a text, voice chat drops. If your screen times out, voice chat drops.

Read our Splatoon 2 Review

Want to play Splatoon 2 on your Switch in handheld form? You’ll need the system, your phone and some headphones. The app’s requirement to keep your screen on will absolutely rip through your phone’s battery life, so you’ll want to either plug it in or keep a backup battery nearby.

We’ve come to this, and it’s red hot garbage.

This is totally Nintendo, though, isn’t it?

This is the same company that once required players to swap friend codes in order to be friends. Friend codes were randomly generated series of 12 numbers. They just moved on from this system, sort of, in the last couple of years.

Nintendo is the same company that, in America, marketed the Wii U almost squarely at kids. Heck! They’re the same company that called it the “Wii U,” causing customer confusion and frustration as regular consumers couldn’t tell that this was a whole new console. Nintendo is the same company that discontinued the NES Classic while it was stupid hot. They still haven’t even offered pre-orders for the SNES Classic. We have no idea what’s going on with the Virtual Console on the Nintendo Switch, and they still can’t make enough of them to go around.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/07/21/nintendo-switch-voice-chat-opinion/